A company that wants to build a $200-million ethanol plant near Innisfail has lined up an important provincial subsidy and construction could begin next spring.
Bob Stroup, a representative for Alberta Ethanol and Biodiesel, said on Tuesday that the company got word last month that a provincial 10-cents-a-litre ethanol subsidy has been renewed.
The subsidy is worth $15 million a year in the first phase of the project, said Stroup. The province had approved the subsidy previously but it expired earlier this year.
Terry Kulesa, who is with Dominion Energy Services LLC, which created Alberta Ethanol and Biodiesel, said about three to four months of detailed engineering work needs to be done.
“Hopefully, next spring we’ll start, is kind of the time line right now,” said Kulesa, adding the start will depend on financing, permits and other issues.
The subsidy helps reduce some of the risks created by fluctuating feedstock prices during the start-up period, he said. About 44,000 bushels of wheat per day will feed the plant.
Once construction begins, it will take about 18 months to two years to build the plant.
It will produce about 150 million litres of ethanol a year, as well as 40,000 tonnes of vital wheat gluten and about 145,000 tonnes of distillers dried grains and solubles.
Carbon dioxide produced by the process will be collected and sold. It is useful in the oilpatch, where carbon dioxide is pumped down wells to boost production.
The project, to be built just north of Innisfail on the west side of Hwy 2A, has raised concerns among some area residents who fear it will be noisy, create traffic and safety problems, affect drainage patterns and produce emissions, says a planning report to Red Deer County council, which unanimously supported an application to consolidate five lots for the project.
A separate 15-acre lot was created to allow the landowners to keep their home there.
Stroup addressed some of the concerns that were raised following the meeting.
Emissions will not be a problem, he said. “(With) any emissions that we have, we meet or exceed the requirements of Alberta Environment and the province,” he said.
A $40,000 noise study commissioned by the company shows that the plant’s noise levels will be “extremely low” and won’t be any louder than existing ambient noise.
Most noise will be confined to inside the plant, truck traffic will use a route on the west side of the plant and a four-metre-high and 90-metre-long barrier will be built to muffle noise from trucks stopping at a weigh station on the site.
Truck traffic will use only one entrance to the site on the south side.
To deal with runoff, a storm water management system will collect water in a retention pond, which will be used to control the amount of water going into the nearby Waskasoo Creek.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com
— copyright Red Deer Advocate